Pokelog: Hurricane Edition

Hey, BZPers. I am just popping in to let you all know that I am still alive. Yup, folks, hurricane has yet to kill me, so that's good news to you guys, I hope. Unless of course, you hate me (Which if you do, I don't blame you really for having such feelings of me.) and that's bad news for ya.

But anyway, it has left me with a lot of free time (I have no school work to do since taking one class makes it rather easy to stay on top of things.), so I played a bit of Pokemon Black 2 today. Although I did not play it nearly as much as I would of like. So yeah, I did not get a whole lot done in the game today. However I think I did enough to at least warrant a Pokelog here about my progress. So without further ado, here is a list of what I done in Black 2 today:

- Well, first off, I finished checking out the Join Avenue. And I must say I think it is really neat idea and I look forward to it being use in future games with hopefully Streetpass functional involved. Hm...I think what I like most about it though is that it makes getting berries in Generation 5 a little bit easy by allowing you to buy berries at shops there. Admittedly I kind of wish they could just let us grow them on our own like they have in previous generations, but I guess Game Freak's logic is that berries can't grow in Unova (America), so they have to import them from "Japan" or something. *shrugs*- After exploring Join Avenue, I obviously went into Nimbasa City and start to explore the place. And well, not a huge lot has change with it, beside amusement park area (Which had a bit of an expansion since apparently the Gym leader decide to build an entirely new Gym rather than change the old one.). - Oh, and the town that you can only to get to by train (Anville Town) is exactly same as it was previously from looks of it. It did have a bit of side quest there involving helping someone get back their lost Pokemon, who went on wrong subway car. That was cool. It would of been nice to have gotten like a good deed medal for that, but apparently Game Freak did not think that was medal worthy. *shrugs*- But anyway, after getting back to the city, I check out Route 5 and Route 16 and like with Nimbasa City, nothing really has change with it, beside having maybe a few more additional people to talk to. - Although Route 5 did have something new to Generation 5 and that was Hidden Grotto, which we were introduced to by Bianca. I am not really sure what to think of those to be honest since I am not hugely sure how you find them. So yeah, it kind of feels like a feature that will make me spent many hours clicking on every tree that I pass in the game.- Route 16 also did have something of interest and that was that entirely of Lostlorn Forest was now visible (In original Black & White, there was illusion being cast by a Zoroark over the area. I believe the only way to remove the illusion was to have shiny Johto legenedary trio in your party, so I have never experienced the event there or seen the whole forest before.). You also run into Zoroark disguised as Backpacker in this forest, who gives you a TM and then run off as his illusion fades. I have a feeling that he might be same backpacker, we met two years ago in Black.- Alright, so after all that, I went back to Nimbasa City and explore the amusement park in more depth. I ended up finding someone's lost Xtransceiver, who end up calling me on it using an older model and asks me to hold on to until they have time to get off from work. So I agreed to hold on to it and they call me back with weird comments like "You're a boy...Oh, I am girl, by the way," and "Video Games, are your hobby, eh?" (How did she even get that information? Is she a stalker or something?).- Beside that, I also took a ride on Rondez-View Ferris Wheel with Nursery Aide June and that was interesting to say the least.- And after that, I explored the former roller coaster Gym for a bit. Once I was done that, I saved the game and turned it off for the night since I was getting a headache by having game sound on too loud with earbuds in.

Alright, that's all I really did in Pokemon Black 2 today. Admittedly I probably miss a lot of stuff to mention here. But it is midnight here and as much as I would like to check things in this entry over repeatedly, I am tired and I have work in the morning, so you will just have to deal with any of spelling or grammar issues in this entry.

With that say, I hope you all have a good night and thank you for taking the time to read this. Good night, BZPers. -JMJ 2012

I love Join Avenue, and agree that with Streetpass integration it could easily become even more awesome.

Personally, I don't totally mind not being able to grow berries, since they're so much easier to get in this game between the Entralink, Join Avenue, and people who give them away daily in bulk. Although I still haven't gotten any Tamato Berries from the girl on Route 5.

Anville Town remains largely the same (as a sleepy little town like that probably would over the course of two years). I did notice that there seems to be one new train that circulates through there daily. As a side note, learning about all the trains that come through is a fairly easy way to get a medal, even if it takes weeks to do.

Hidden Grottoes are hard to find, but not impossible. What you have to look out for is a spot between two trees that is darker than other spots. Still, I didn't find a single one without the help of either Bianca or the internet.

I assume when Yancy calls you, what she says are responses to the unspoken conversations from the player (similarly to how Copycat would "mimic" what you didn't really say in the Kanto games).

One last note: the area around Nimbasa City is perfect for trying out the new Entralink (at least once you've beaten most of the trainers on the surrounding routes). The Entralink has been vastly improved in these games, most significantly by making it possible for you to participate in missions on your own (although there's still an incentive to do them with other people, particularly for the higher-level Funfest missions). The new missions are also more rewarding, with many of them making it easy to find free items in addition to giving you Pass Orbs if you complete the mission within the time limit.

Nevermind Streetpass integration for just a future Join Avenue; Streetpass integration for the whole game. It's really too bad these games had to be on the DS, the Tag Log would've been much easier to use if it could make use of Streetpass. =/

I think it's because of the soil or something. I'm not sure; but that would be my guess, since that's why you couldn't plant stuff in FR/LG and HGSS. Though at least HGSS gave you the berry pots...

As for the trees, you can tell once you find a few of them; basically two trees have what seems like tall grass between them, though it's easy to miss(One spot on ROute 3 intrigued me, since it had an item in Black but not in Black 2, but I didn't pay it any mind. Only thinking back did I realize that there was a Hidden Grotto there. =P).

I'm almost positive that's the same backpacker. He says similar things about Zoroark and knew about the events from Black 1, which are apparently total Canon now.

You're telling her the stuff 'off-screen'(Aka, in ...s like Red); it becomes more apparent later on, when you can call her, instead of Vice Versa. I really hope that side-quest becomes canon if there's a sequel for Gen 6, it's my personal favourite sidequest in the series. Good rewards, too.

@Lyichir: Just want to clarified that my complains about berry thing had to do with Black 1, not Black 2. And really I only feel that way in Black 1 because I had a bad experience with my Pokemon getting put to sleep too much and running out Chesto Berries.

So yeah, it kind of rub me the wrong way that I couldn't grow more of them. Of course, I probably could of just brought a bunch of Awakening from a Pokemart, I imagine. *shrugs*

Hm...You got point about Anville Town. I was just hoping to maybe have more to explore is all. And thanks for tip for that medal. I'll be sure to take regular trips to Anville Town to try and get that.

As for your Hidden Grotto comment, I think I notice what you meant about it being a spot between two trees that is darker than other spots when I found Lostlorn Forest one. Of course, I technically did look that up. But I did notice the spot for it being slightly different than others.

As for Yancy business, I realize that my character is actually talking to her. But well, my problem is that I don't really see my character saying stuff like this in reply to her question, "Hi...is this JMJ?" "Yeah, it is. And I am a boy," "Wow, so you're a boy, JMJ? It's a little annoying that we can't see each other, right? Just so you know… I'm a girl. Tee hee. Oops! My colleague is calling me. I have to get back to work! Talk to you again. Good-bye."

I mean I don't really see how she wouldn't know I am boy from my voice alone. Although then again, my character's voice might not fully developed yet, so it is still higher in pitch. *shrugs* Or it is also possible that she heard me just say yeah, it is JMJ and then she concluded from my voice that I am boy. Hm...I guess that works.

Although I still don't see how hobby conversation make senses as I don't see what reason I have to tell her that since she called me in the first place. *shrugs* Really to be honest, I do like this side quest as it actually gives a use for Xtransceiver, which was mostly useless in the previous game. That and I am interested in seeing who exactly this Yancy person is and all. So yeah, I am just being nit-picky for no reason really.

Hm...Entralink? I can't say I am hugely familiar with how to use Entralink or what involves exactly (Again, I can't say I have many friends [Really I can't say I have many friends period.] with an interest in Pokemon, so I rarely get to use the cool local stuff.), but I have beaten all the trainers nearby, so I guess I could check it out. Thanks for the tip, Lyichir. I'll try to maybe check it out tomorrow.

@Blade: What's Tag Log? Is that related to survey thing? If so, then yeah, I agreed with you on that.

Yeah, it is more than likely that issue with berry growth in Unova is soil related like it was in Kanto. Although it also could be climate issue as Unova isn't exactly close by to other Pokemon location that we know about, so it likely has a different climate. I do have to wonder though why they didn't just give us the berry pots like in HG/SS. *shrugs*

Hm...Thanks for tip on finding Hidden Grottoes, Blade. I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time that I am searching for one.

Yeah, I think it would make sense that it was the same backpacker and the fact that he is actually a Zoroark makes me think that he might of been maybe been the mate of that female Zoroark from two years ago. *shrugs*

As for Yancy stuff, like I say above, I realize that my character is talking to her (Exactly how much is the question, but that is clearly not going to get answer since we are "silent" player.). And yeah, I can understand why you liked it since it seem like a pretty interesting quest so far and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes exactly.

The tag log is kinda related; it's what keeps track of the amount of times you have met passer-bys(Not sure of the plural here, but whatever). But yeah, that survey could've been handled better too. Why you can't have Black and White register the 'what version are you playing' question is beyond me. >>'

Yeah; that's just odd. I guess it was to promote the Dream World, since you could grow berries there(And a lot more than in-game, if you've noticed), but people like to have their berry growing in-game, not out of game. xD

Another tip; they're always located in a 'clump' of trees; basically, if there are trees in a bunch, and there are trees behind two trees, then it is possible to appear there. You won't find a Hidden Grotto if you find only a single row of trees, for example.

That's a good point... Since maybe he was attempting to warn H off, but they continued anyway. Though why he stayed is the question...

It gets much better. =D Your nearest end point is around the seventh gym, though; but just keep checking different spots. Also; something I thought of; all those questions are related to what you input for the surveys... So maybe it registered to the Cross Transceiver? I still like the fact that you're telling her the info, but that's a possibility too.

The tag log is kinda related; it's what keeps track of the amount of times you have met passer-bys(Not sure of the plural here, but whatever). But yeah, that survey could've been handled better too. Why you can't have Black and White register the 'what version are you playing' question is beyond me. >>'

Yeah; that's just odd. I guess it was to promote the Dream World, since you could grow berries there(And a lot more than in-game, if you've noticed), but people like to have their berry growing in-game, not out of game. xD

Another tip; they're always located in a 'clump' of trees; basically, if there are trees in a bunch, and there are trees behind two trees, then it is possible to appear there. You won't find a Hidden Grotto if you find only a single row of trees, for example.

That's a good point... Since maybe he was attempting to warn H off, but they continued anyway. Though why he stayed is the question...

It gets much better. =D Your nearest end point is around the seventh gym, though; but just keep checking different spots. Also; something I thought of; all those questions are related to what you input for the surveys... So maybe it registered to the Cross Transceiver? I still like the fact that you're telling her the info, but that's a possibility too.

The XTranceiver point is a good one, particularly because I think the X-Tranceiver is a function of the C-Gear (or vice-versa). It'd explain how you can use the X-Tranceiver within the C-Gear to chat with friends wirelessly. And since the Tag Log is also a function of the C-Gear, it's not inconceivable that the X-Tranceiver "app" might be able to access data from other parts of the C-Gear.

@Blade: Ah, I see. Yeah, streetpass integration would definitely have been great for that stuff. Here's to hoping they do that in the next game, if it is on the 3DS.

Hm...I imagine you are right about their reasoning for not having the berry pots in this generation. And well, I guess that's just another reason why I should probably check out the Dream World at some point since I actually have yet to make use of it. So yeah, I am not really aware of all it has to offer such as growing berries feature that you mention here.

Thanks for the tip, Blade. I'll be sure to keep what you say in mind next time I visit a route or a forest with trees.

Ah, I see. Well, that's good to hear. I look to forward to doing more with that questline then. And yeah, that's what I assume she got the information about me from since the hobby thing did feel like she pull it from the survey, I filled out in the previous city.

So yeah, I think you are right on money with that theory. Although really it doesn't hurt thinking you just told her that yourself. I mean it is left open enough that really could be either view of the situation. Of course, I would much prefer thinking that she just read my answers to surveys though. To keep his own.

@Lyichir: Yeah, like I said above that was actually my original assumption of how she got that information about me, which is actually why I say jokingly that she was my stalker or something because she seem be putting a lot of effort in getting to know some random dude that found her "cell phone".

Interests: LEGO, Bionicle, Star Wars, Legend of Zelda Games, Nintendo games, and Harry Potter (Check Interest list in my Profile for more information.)Fan of BIONICLE since: The beginning, but I wasn't that interest in it until the late 2003... My interest peaked during 2004, which is why I joined here the following year (2005).Hobbies: Drawing, reading, writing, collecting BIONICLE/LEGO sets, playing Video Games and riding my bike.